THE CLUB’S HISTORY

The Howick Sailing Club began in 1933 through the active enthusiasm of a Howick yachtsman, Mr John Kydd. On the 21st of August that year, Mr Kydd convened a meeting of Howick people, who were interested in boating activities, for the purpose of forming a local sailing club. The meeting took place in the old Howick Library (which is now the court house sited at the Howick Colonial Village). Mr Kydd was elected the first Commodore and sailing began with a membership of 34 and a fleet of 6 boats ranging from Zeddies to 16-footers.

The headquarters were set up in a garage owned by Mr Tom Granger. In 1933 most of the land at the water’s edge was still privately owned. 

A racing calendar was arranged for the 1933-34 season commencing with Opening Day on Labour Day, October 23rd, and fortnightly thereafter until April 1934. The first ever race started with a bang from a borrowed shot gun. Four boats started off the end of the wharf on a cold and squally day, Mistral (J A Kydd), Rival (G A Newton), Caried (Misses A & M Cave) and Janet (C & J Barber). A keenly fought race over the Club's course resulted in a win for the experienced Mistral crew.

After the boats came back to the beach, the race was re-sailed by skippers and crews in friendly arguments over the many incidents which had occurred, involving port and starboard tack situations, the luffing of windward boats and of course the old question of buoy room when rounding marks. The after-race discussion became a regular event and was almost as exciting as the racing itself.

The duty of laying the marks for the course was the responsibility of the yacht rostered for the day and after the race “post-mortem" was settled, the boat concerned would then have to sail the course again to pick up the marks. There were no patrol or rescue boats to call upon in those days.

The Sailing Club prospered in its first summer and by the end of the season ten yachts, 14 & 16 footers, were actively racing together. Racing continued in a similar pattern through to the 1937-38 season, but war-time activities caused the club to go into recess from 1939 until 1946.

1946-1952
In January 1946, the Club was reformed and a sailing programme for the remainder of that season began. The Sailing Club fleet consisted of a 22ft Mullet Boat, three Y class (14ft hard chine), two Z class, a T class, a Silver Fern, an Idle Along and a Frostbite.

Commodore for the first year was Mr A. Johnson. The following year Mr Bert Wilson became Commodore and remained at the helm for the next twelve years. Most of the boats, being very heavy, were kept anchored in the bay and hauled ashore on rollers in bad weather. Racing was a bit hit and miss before the availability of a patrol boat. If anyone got into difficulties, other competitors would render assistance. A capsize of course, meant a sinking and a tow home was the only alternative.

Races were started at this time by officials seated on the top deck of the remaining central portion of the old Howick wharf, about half way to low tide mark. The 1947, 48, 49 seasons saw the growth of the fleet to include five more Y class, four additional X class, three Idle Along’s and another Frostbite. Handicapping was very important. 

The 1949/50 season saw a peak in numbers of boats up to 14ft, most of which were 10 or more years old, however the members were soon in for a shock. Two sailors from Onehunga arrived one day and carried an International 14 down to the water’s edge and then proceeded to thrash everything we had as it raced around the course!

The days of 25 mil kauri hulls, large sails and larger crews were numbered, so by 1952 the 14 footers had disappeared. With the availability now of marine plywood, a new trend in boat-building was beginning. 

ARROWS
An Arrow fleet developed in the mid fifties and ten years later 34 Arrows were racing regularly in two divisions. 
Numbers started to decline in the mid-seventies with the advent of newer designs such as the Sunbursts, Mustangs and Lasers, but a fleet of six boats were still competing in 1975.

OK’s
While most of the Club were arguing about stay heights in Arrows, a new, young breed in the early 1960's were building boats that had no stays, the “OK”. The boat was quite easy to build for the amateur, practically unsinkable, and an ideal trainer boat for the Olympic Finns, both having similar characteristics with rotating masts. By the mid sixties the Club fleet numbered 12. 

FLYING ANTS
In the 1960's John Spencer designed a junior training boat that became known as the Flying Ant. These craft were sailed by a crew of two youngsters who quickly learnt all the basics of sailing as the boats carried jib, mainsail and spinnaker. Club fleets of more than a dozen were racing in the bay early in the seventies and well known Club sailors who were to graduate from this class were, Andrew Taylor, Grant Turnbull and Rohan Lord.

NZ MOTHS
A character named Jack Taylor was the crusader for NZ Moths at Howick in the mid-sixties. He called it “the one true faith”. In the fleet were long-in-the-tooth members like Jack and several young guys on the way up, but they found it very tough to knock over the oldies.
An over-canvassed beast with one square foot of sail for every pound of hull weight, the "Mark II" was a gut-busting boat to sail and not at all tolerant of handling errors. The early wave of owners included Paul Rudling, Don Baverstock, Colin Beavis and Pat Thompson. 

When the World International Champs were held at Napier in 1970, many "butter box" owners changed over to the unrestricted boat and had a flutter, but the Australians dominated the contest. Subsequently the class built up again and the Howick fleet in 1980 was still the one to beat. Rick Bishop, Viv Wright, Dave Schmidt and Ian Harvey were the big guns of this era and the racing was hard and mean. 

SUNBURSTS 
In the early 1970's, several club members who had competed in Arrows for a period, began to look for an alternative boat to sail. This group settled on the Sunburst, a two man boat designed by Jack Brooke in 1963.

A team of enthusiasts joined forces in 1973 and organised a building programme. By the 1973/74 season, a fleet of about eight boats was on the water and a number of handsome trophies had been arranged. The class continued to grow and within a couple of years eleven boats regularly took to the water. A feature of the development of the class at this stage was the interest of wives who formed a group known as "Mums Navy" and practised sailing on Saturday mornings.

The presence of the Sunburst class had obvious benefits for the build-up of junior membership in the Club. Not only did it provide a training ground for forward hands (a role previously provided by the Arrow class), but many of the youngsters involved moved onto the Starling class once they had learned the basics of sailing.

MUSTANGS
In parallel with the introduction of the Sunburst in the early 1970's another group of ex-Arrow skippers proposed that a crewed class should be introduced that provided more exciting sailing for experienced members. After considering a number of options, a boat called "Willenpoof" was selected in 1973. This had been designed by John Spencer in 1957, but only a few hulls had been built. Discussions were initiated with the designer to introduce trapezes and spinnakers, and the name "Mustang" was settled on for the class. 

As well as the boats produced by John Spencer, Jack Taylor, a professional boat builder who had supported several classes in the Club, built boats for Club members at reasonable cost and by 1975 there were sufficient boats on the water to hold a class championship.

New boats were appearing on the scene continually, and Barry Olliff had a Champagne launching of Holy Grail during the 1975/76 season. This was a successful boat that won the class championships three times, once in the hands of Willie Webster, and twice in the hands of Bevin and Scott Cornwall. Bevin continues to sail this boat to this day.
Another simply rigged and attractively finished boat "Footslogger" built by Taylor was top boat in 1980 when sailed bv Andrew Taylor and in 1983 when campaigned by Stuart and Roger Mudford. 

CLUBHOUSE
In the late 1940’s, members ran fortnightly dances in the Pakuranga Hall to raise funds for a Clubhouse. This building, a steel ship’s cabin from the “Southern Cross” was hauled from Cockle Bay, where it had done service as a holiday bach and the expenditure of $200, plus a good deal of voluntary labour, converted it into a practical clubhouse. It stood on the site now occupied by the Howick Sea Rescue. A concrete-block gear shed was added and later, a top storey starting box.

In 1958, when there was talk of beach improvements, the Club decided to replace the existing clubhouse with another on a new site. Bottle drives and manure drives, etc. were organised and, with some pre-paid subscriptions, enough money was raised to have the current clubhouse built. Much of the foundation work was performed by members! A grant was received from the “Golden Kiwi” lottery to enable the Club to complete the furnishing and develop the basement. It was officially opened on Sunday November 12th 1967. 

PATROL BOATS
During 1947-51 the Club had the willing help of Mr Ivan Whale (currently a Club Vice-President) with his launch as start boat and patrol boat. This was invaluable as one annual race was around Flat Island, and another to Surfdale and back. Both of these events continue to this day.

From 1957 – 1970 we shared a rescue vessel with Howick Sea Rescue. The boat, simply called “Rescue” was built from public subscription, with Club members doing the lion’s share of the collecting. Fortunately for us, a faster boat was purchased for Howick Sea Rescue and so we bought the shared boat.
“Rescue” served the Club until 1994 when it was sold to one of our Vice-Patrons (and former Howick Mayor) Morrin Cooper. Morrin has since restored the boat (now renamed ‘Howickciting’) and uses it on Lake Rotoiti.

Our current committee boat, the yellow 5.7m Mac was purchased in 1994. The majority of funding for this boat and our current fleet of rescue inflatables was from generous grants from the ASB Bank Trust, the Hillary Commission and the Lion Foundation.